Lisa Stertz

Lisa Stertz is a German artist currently based in Berlin. In her work she aims to direct attention to the human being on a bare, existential level. Introducing herself with the »SLOW PIECES« series in 2011, in which she visualized the impossibility to divide natural from cultural needs, her own body became the raw material to draw from and to act upon.

A central concept of her work is the notion of freedom and the human handling of it. Knowing that absolute freedom does not exist, but that it is always subject to a moment of negotiation, she shows and pursues versions of negotiations. Her work asks questions related to identity, culture, understanding, acceptance, respect, honesty, reason and gratitude. In other words, it is exposed to the exploration of different modes of perception to point to an unbiased openness and to alter predetermination. This happens on a theoretical and logical level, as well as on an emotional and on a purely physical level. Out of the latter the priority of her artistic endeavors became the field of performance and body art.

It is important for Stertz to show that given or chosen structures are not only burdens to live with, but give raise to new forms of behavior, i.e. achievement. In her point of view one only feels free in a (self-)created frame. Freedom and restriction are in a dialectical relationship. Every restriction implies a possibility.